White Horse by Alex Adams

When I wake the world is gone. Only fragments remain. And then I remember …Before: Her life may have taken a couple of wrong turns but Zoe is trying to make the best of what she has. A part-time cleaning job to pay for college, a weekly appointment with her therapist to straighten out the problems in her life. The same problems that any thirty-year-old would have. Nothing major. Nothing life-threatening. A few bad dream, that’s all. After: The only thought that remains is survival. Survival in a desolate, post-apocalyptic world. For herself. For her unborn baby. But help is scarce in a world where untold horrors exist around every corner, where food and water are in desperately short supply, and the only chance of happiness is half a world away.

HOW WE MET

I was browsing in Waterstones in London when this caught my eye. The cover just seemed to jump off the shelf and slap me upside the head. So naturally I was going to be having words with it, but the blurb had me gnawing on my lip, because, you see, I wasn’t intending on buying anything, and yet I could already see my debit card flying into the card machine as if of its own volition. I’m sure book lovers everywhere have experienced that moment of resignation when you know you will be making room on your already bulging book case for another resident. I am going to be needing a whole new bookcase very soon…

REVIEW

If you’re looking for a post-apocalyptic yarn with bundles of action, blood, maybe some zombies, then this is not for you. If you’re looking for writing that paints a picture in your mind, that makes you stop and marvel at a turn of phrase, that takes you deep into the mind of a apocalypse survivor, then White Horse is for you.

I was hooked from the first page, I immediately wanted to know about Zoe, I wanted to understand her and eventually I began to worry about her, care for her. White horse is a story about a journey, the backdrop may be a post-apocalyptic world and yes, it is significant, but the story is all Zoe.

This, for me, was a page turner and the first book I have finished in one day in a long time. Highly recommended!